1898
Year 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). Events of 1898 January - March * January 1 - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. * January 13 - Emile Zola's J'Accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair. * February 7 - Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse * February 10 - Bertolt Brecht practicioner of theatre was born * February 12 - Henry Lindfield dies in England, becoming the world's first fatality from an automobile accident. * February 15 - Spanish-American War: The [[Wikipedia:USS Maine (ACR-1)|USS Maine]] explodes and sinks in Havana harbor, Cuba for then unknown reasons killing 266 men. This event helped lead the United States to declare war on Spain. : [[Wikipedia:USS Maine (ACR-1)|USS Maine]] will sink.]] * February 23 - Emile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse" which was a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. * March 24 - Robert Allison of Port Carbon becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that was advertised in Scientific American. * March 26 - The Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa, the first officially designated game reserve, is created. * March 27 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan passes away peacefully in Aligarh, Awadh. April - June * April 22 - Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the [[Wikipedia:USS Nashville (PG-7)|USS Nashville]] captures a Spanish merchant ship. * April 25 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21 (later backdating one more day to April 20). * May 2 - Association of thousands of Chinese scholars and Beijing citizens in front of the Capital Control Yuan asking for reform. * May 7/9 - General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris kills hundreds of demonstrators in Milan, Italy shooting on a rally; King of Italy Umberto I will be killed two years after to avenge this shooting. * May 8 - The first games of the Italian Football League are played. * May 28 - Secondo Pia takes the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin and discovers that the image on Shroud itself appears to be a photographic negative. * June 1 - The Trans-Mississippi Exposition World's Fair opens in Omaha. * June 12 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain. * June 13 - Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital. July - September * July 3 - Joshua Slocum completes a 3-year solo circumnavigation * July 7 - The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands. * July 17 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish. * July 25 - Spanish-American War: The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with a landing at Guánica Bay. * August 12- Spanish-American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba. * August 28- Caleb Bradham names his soft drink Pepsi-Cola. * September 2 - Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. * September 10 - Luigi Lucheni assassinates Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary. * September 21 - Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineered a coup d'etat, and it marks the end of Hundred Days' Reform: Guangxu Emperor was arrested. October - December * October 1 - The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie. * October 3 - The Battle of Sugar Point in Northern Minnesota. Between Ojibwe & U.S. government. * October 6 - First meeting and founding of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, then called the Sinfonia Club, at the New England Conservatory in Boston. * October 12 - Establishment of the first town council in Mateur. : blizzard.]] * November 26 - A two-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston and severely impacts the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns. * December 9th - The first of the two Tsavo maneaters was shot by John Henry Patterson, the second was killed three weeks later, after 135 workers had been killed. * December 10 - The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War is signed in Paris. * December 26 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce discovery of a substance they call radium. Undated * Fashoda incident -- diplomatic dispute between France and the United Kingdom. * Exploits of Louis de Rougemont begin to appear in the Wide World Magazine. * North Petherton becomes the first town in England to install Acetylene lighting. * John Jacob Abel isolates epinephrine (adrenaline). * William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover neon. * Joseph Sears School was founded in Kenilworth. * Wakita was founded in the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma. * Fork Union Military Academy is founded. Births January - June *January 16 - Margaret Booth, American film editor (d. 2002) *January 21 - Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (d. 1930) *January 22 - Elazar Shach, Haredi Rabbi (d. 2001) *January 23 **Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948) **Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948) *January 26 - Katarzyna Kobro, Russian sculptor (d.1951) *February 1 - Leila Denmark, US-American pediatrician *February 3 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976) *February 10 - Bertolt Brecht, German writer (d. 1956) *February 11 - Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American physicist (d. 1964) *February 14 - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss physicist and astronomer (d. 1974) *February 15 - Allen Woodring, American runner (d. 1982) *February 18 **Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and automobile manufacturer (d. 1988) **Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician (d. 1980) *February 24 - Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer (d. 1983) *February 28 - Hugh O'Flaherty, Irish Catholic priest (d. 1963) *March 4 - Georges Dumézil, French philologist (d. 1940) *March 11 - Dorothy Gish, American actress (d. 1968) *March 14 - Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (d. 1985) *March 31 - Hermann van Pels, German-Dutch father of Peter van Pels, housemate of Anne Frank (d. 1944) *April 1 - William James Sidis, American mathematician (d. 1944) *April 3 - George Jessel, American comedian (d. 1981) *April 4 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (d. 1940) *April 6 - Jeanne Hébuterne, French painter (d. 1920) *April 26 **Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984) **John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (d. 1972) *May 3 - Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978) *May 5 - Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer (d. 1983) *May 13 **Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah, King of Malaysia (d. 1960) **Justin Tuveri, Italian veteran of the First World War (d. 2007) *May 15 - Arletty, French model and actress (d. 1992) *May 16 - Tamara de Lempicka, Art Deco painter (d. 1980) *May 17 - Alfred Joseph Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992) *May 21 - Armand Hammer, American entrepreneur and art collector (d. 1990) *May 23 - Scott O'Dell, American author (d. 1989) *May 31 - Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993) *June 4 - Harry Crosby, American publisher and poet (d. 1929) *June 5 - Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet (d. 1936) *June 6 - Ninette de Valois, Irish dancer and founder of The Royal Ballet, London (d. 2001) *June 17 **M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972) **Henry Harry Patch , Last Tommy Atkins *June 22 - Erich Maria Remarque, German writer (d. 1970) July - September *July 2 - Gen Paul, French artist (d. 1975) *July 3 - Donald Healey, English motor engineer and race car driver (d. 1988) *July 6 - Hanns Eisler, German composer (d. 1962) *July 17 **Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991) **George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer (d. 1985) *July 22 **Stephen Vincent Benét, American writer (d. 1943) **Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976) *July 28 - Lawrence Gray, American actor (d.1970) *July 29 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968) *July 30 - Henry Moore, English sculptor (d. 1986) *August 15 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966) *August 26 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979) *August 29 - Preston Sturges, American director and writer (d. 1959) *September 13 - Roger Désormière, French conductor (d. 1963) *September 22 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (d. 1981) *September 24 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1968) *September 25 - Robert Brackman, American artist (d. 1980) *September 26 - George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937) *September 29 - Trofim Lysenko, Russian biologist (d. 1976) *September 30 **Renée Adorée, French actress (d. 1933) **Princess Charlotte of Monaco (d. 1977) *October 10 **Lilly Daché, French milliner (d. 1989) **Marie Pierre Koenig, French general and politician (d. 1970) *October 15 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (d. 1959) *October 18 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian actress and singer (d. 1981) *November 8 - Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (d. 1937) *November 12 - Leon Štukelj, Slovene gymnast, Olympic gold medalist and athlete (d. 1999) *November 17 - Maurice Journeau, composer (d. 1999) *November 18 - Joris Ivens, Dutch director (d. 1989) *November 19 - Arthur R. von Hippel, German-born physicist (d. 2003) *November 21 - René Magritte, Belgian artist (d. 1967) *November 26 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973) *November 29 - C. S. Lewis, British author (d. 1963) *November 30 - Firpo Marberry, baseball pitcher (d. 1976) *December 2 - Indra Lal Roy, Indian World War I pilot (d. 1918) *December 6 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, American photojournalist (d. 1995) *December 19 - Zheng Zhenduo, Chinese author and translator (d. 1958) *December 20 - Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990) *December 24 - Baby Dodds, (d. 1959) *''date unknown'' - Mariya Klenova, Russian marine geologist (d. 1976) : See also 1898 births. Deaths January-June *January 14 - Lewis Carroll, British writer, mathematician (b. 1832) *January 16 - Charles Pelham Villiers longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons (b. 1802) *January 18 - Henry George Lidell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (b. 1811) *February 16 - Thomas Bracken, Author of the official national anthem of New Zealand - God Defend New Zealand (b.1843) *March 1 - George Bruce Malleson, Indian officer and author (b. 1825) *March 15 - Henry Bessemer, British engineer and inventor (b. 1813) *March 16 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (b. 1872) *March 18 - Matilda Joslyn Gage, American feminist (b. 1826) *March 27 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian university founder (b. 1817) *April 15 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader *April 18 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826) *May 19 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1809) July-December *July 1 - Siegfried Marcus, Austrian automobile pioneer (b. 1831) *July 5 - Richard Pankhurst *July 12 - Louis-François Richer Laflèche, Roman Catholic Bishop of Trois-Rivières, Native American missionary (b. 1818) *July 30 - Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (b. 1815) *August 8 - Eugène Boudin, French painter (b. 1824) *September 2 - Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1807) *September 5 - Sarah Emma Edmundson, Canadian nurse and spy (b. 1841) *September 9 - Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (b. 1842) *September 16 - Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, medical doctor and diplomat (b. 1827) *September 20 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (b. 1819) *September 28 - Tan Sitong, Chinese revolutionary (executed) (b. 1865) *October 24 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (b. 1824) *November 2 - George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (b. 1826) *December 24 - Sharbel Makhluf, Lebanese monk (b. 1828) : See also 1898 deaths.